Webster bridge project becomes disaster’

A construction project started by Oxford in August that was expected to close the North Main Street Bridge for days has turned into months.

Back in August, Oxford requested the closing of the bridge for one week, but because the project has met the unrelenting obstacle of feet of ledge, the bridge is still closed, according to Town Administrator John F. McAuliffe and DPW Director J.T. Gaucher.

Also known as the Webster-Dudley bridge, it has been closed because the horizontal drilling “turned into a disaster over there, where they hit ledge trying to run some utilities underground, and it’s wreaked havoc with some of the traffic patterns throughout town,” Mr. McAuliffe told selectmen at last night’s meeting.

A police detail officer had been helping direct traffic, he said.

In May, selectmen here signed the Webster-Oxford Inter-Municipal Agreement in regard to water and sewer hookups.

In August, the public works director said Oxford would dig two large holes on either side of railroad tracks. It was to jack a 20-inch steel sleeve under the tracks to insert a new 52-foot force main going in for the connection into Webster.

The ledge has been discovered despite a company using a ground radar that asserted there wasn’t any rock underground, Mr. Gaucher said last night.

The superintendent on the Oxford job, according to Mr. Gaucher, said the day before Thanksgiving would be the worst-case scenario for forging through the rock.

“If they make it through the rock they’ll be finished in a day,” he said.

Selectman Robert Miller said “traffic has been absolutely horrendous,” with motorists unable to get through Negus Street and traffic jammed on Route 16 to get through town.

Selectman Deborah Keefe said she’d “never seen a construction project that’s such a mess.”